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Championship: Wigan's Marc-Antoine Fortune is happy to focus on domestic football

Marc-Antoine Fortune is pleased that his Wigan team-mates' international escapades are over until March.

Last Updated: 25/11/13 6:56pm

Marc-Antoine Fortune: Happy to concentrate on the league

A home loss to Brighton on Saturday, the Latics' first at the DW Stadium this term, means Owen Coyle's men have lost all three of their immediate fixtures after international breaks this season.

With Wigan players representing the likes of Honduras and Chile, it is perhaps no surprise that such a quirky statistic exists yet, given the international calendar takes a back-seat until well into the new year, Fortune wants no distractions in the Latics' quest to instantly return to the top flight.

"We'll keep fighting, this is a long season and we've got many chances to win ahead of us," he told the Sky Bet Championship club's official website.

"Every time we come back after international fixtures we don't perform to the standards we demand from ourselves.

"We can't make excuses now because there are no international breaks and I think a long run of games for us can be very good.

"I think we'll be there at the end of the season because we have the potential to start up a run of consecutive wins now that we won't have big breaks in fixtures.

"We've got the desire to stay close to the top teams and in our next few performances we have to really show what we can do."

A lack of fire-power has been one of Wigan's biggest problems this term with Fortune and fellow summer recruit Grant Holt struggling to find both form and fitness at different times.

Coyle remains hopeful of acquiring Manchester United's Will Keane prior to the loan deadline this week while he also has the funds to try and rectify that problem in the January transfer window.

Fortune has scored just once in 17 appearances since moving to the DW Stadium and knows he must improve on such a ratio.

He added: "We've got to find a cutting edge otherwise we're going to concede goals because our opponents will not feel the pressure of playing us."